Nothing is Going to Get Better, It's Not: Our Review of "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" (2012)

Synopsis: To impress the girl of his dreams, 12-year-old
Ted (Efron) must track down The Once-ler – the only person in Thneedville who
knows what happened to all the trees. Upon finding him, Ted is told the tale of
The Once-ler and The Lorax, the guardian of the trees. Based on the classic
tale by Dr. Seuss.

REVIEW

Sarah: Hi readers! So we saw "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" this
afternoon. Gotta say, I wasn't impressed. While it was a pretty movie and had
some fun voice acting, it just tried to be too much like "Despicable
Me." What did you think?

Andrew: If we wanted to summarize our thoughts of “The Lorax” then I
think you did an excellent job. It LOOKED great; fantastic animation and it
looked very much like a Dr. Seuss movie should. The voice acting done by Danny
DeVito, Zac Efron and Ed Helms was very good, while the voice acting done by
Taylor Swift, Betty White and Rob Riggle was just okay.

Overall, though, “The Lorax” was an uninspiring film to me. It had a
VERY political vibe to in that it was all about industrialism, consumerism,
pollution, the ecosystem, etc. and all of that was wrapped up in what they tried
to make a cute film kids would love. It just didn’t work well for me.

S: So let’s talk about the propaganda. This story has always been about
the killing of the trees and the way consumerism will eventually take over the
world. It was very good depicting all of that, but it was kinda overkill. For a
kid’s movie, it went over all of their heads. There were funny parts, sure, and
it was cute at times with all of the little bears and walking fish, but I was
still a little disappointed.

Along with all of this propaganda they tried to turn this movie into a
Disney musical. What did you think about that?

A: Oh man, I hated it. Right from the start the movie opens with a
musical number and it made me cringe. Then there were about four or five more
just like it in the rest of the movie. I actually felt bad for Ed Helms because
his Once-ler sings most of the songs, and I like Helms and he’s a very talented
musician, but these songs were terrible. I’m sure the kids ate it up, and
that’s clearly the demographic, but for any adults who will see this just be
warned that the songs leave a lot to be desired.

I also think you nailed it on the head earlier when you said “The Lorax”
was trying to hard to be like “Despicable Me.” Director Chris Renaud, who was
co-director for “Despicable Me” and holds the same position for its sequel,
tried too hard to make this just as cute and cuddly and it felt like a rip-off.
The bears and fish were too much like the Minions in “Despicable Me” for my
taste.

S: I agree. For a kid’s movie, the basics were all there; cute and some
music. But for the adults that have to take the kids to see, it might be
torturous.

I loved the original story from the book, but they changed a lot for the
movie! In the book, The Once-ler is the bad guy, and he’s kinda creepy since
all you see are those green arms. But in the movie? The villain part goes to
this little man with a complex.

A: It’s been a loooooong time since I’ve seen 1970’s version of “The
Lorax” or read the book, but I definitely did realize they changed the
antagonist for this film. In this version the main bad guy is a little guy
named Mr. O’Hare who’s become the richest man in Thneedville by selling people
bottled air to combat the pollution. Somehow he’s taken over Thneedville and wants
to keep Efron’s Ted from going out into the real world to talk to The Once-ler.

So with Mr. O’Hare as the bad guy, this film makes The Once-ler into one
of the protagonists for the majority of the film despite the fact he’s
obviously the one who killed all the trees. It’s not until late in the film do
they make The Once-ler into the bad guy he is…and it’s with a musical number.
Ugh. Wasn’t a fan of that part of the movie, but oh well.

S: Oh well, it wasn’t what we hoped.

So, for the final rating we will say this, if you have kids it’s a good way
to kill an afternoon otherwise, skip it all together.

3 comments:

I wanted to get your guys take on the film. I just re-read the book. I was not the biggest fan of Despicable Me, so I don't think I will like this one. Fiona wants to see it, maybe I can hold her off for netflix:)

When all is said and done, The Lorax has plenty of ups and downs when it comes to added plot and characters, but it's still a nice family feature nonetheless. However, the right-wing message may start to get a little preachy at times. Good review. Give mine a look when you get the chance.

@Joy Hey Joy! Fiona will probably enjoy the heck out of it. The audience we saw it with was sold out and all the kids loved it. But if you didn't like "Despicable Me" then there's a very strong chance you won't like this one. So keep that in mind.